Antecedent Based Strategies

So without further ado, sit back, relax, and always analyze responsibly.

I like the way our conversations... have been unfolding in terms of our building conversation on different aspects of ABA. Last time talking about differential reinforcement and almost naturally leading to today's discussion on antecedent-based strategies. So whenever we talk about or we mention that moniker, Immediately, you know, priving and discussing behavioral expectations, non-contingent reinforcement, environmental arrangement, which maybe we'll spend a lot of time discussing today.

These are all common terms that we kick around, but by and large, we could say fairly that we... in practice are largely consequence-based. So you and I decided that we want to spend some time on this idea of antecedent-based strategies and take a little time to delineate the technology, which I'll pass over to you in just a second.

But by and large and overall, take time to create three, four, maybe three overarching solid points about why we need to make a clear shift as practitioners into more antecedent-based approaches and discussions. So with that, Dan, you know, chaining, task analysis, all things, and maybe those two we don't consider as much as antecedent-based strategies. So give us a little overview of the technology and how you see it fitting into actual practice these days.

A task analysis is preemptively breaking the skill or the task down, so That's certainly an antecedent strategy, but I think if we're approaching ABA specifically for individuals with ASD, but obviously it's not uniquely for individuals with ASD, but if they're coming from a deficit model and a model of lacking some skills, we should probably start to teach those skills and reinforce when those skills occur rather than just reinforcing or punishing when the maladaptive behaviors occur.

Because it's interesting, because from the medical perspective, we get a referral when an individual is having deficits. And parents know sometimes the deficits, but man, when we do that first assessment, it's all about the excesses and the things that they're doing that the parents don't want them to do.

So it's important that we focus on setting up the situation, because either way, if we're talking about the deficit model, we need to teach the skills, and that's done proactively or preemptively. And if we're talking about the maladaptive behaviors that we're trying to reduce, we're going to have to find something to take its place like we talked about last episode in differential reinforcement. So like you always talk about, we're going to have to rewrite that script either way.

And it's very difficult. Like you say, parents leave well enough alone. So it's very difficult to get out in front of parents. The skills, right? I can't tell you how many parents I have that every single night at 5 o'clock when they say it's time to do homework, and I know I keep coming back to this analogy, but they do it in the same way, in the same time, at the same place, every single time and wonder why it doesn't work.

Well, let's try to get out in front of it and work on some of these antecedent-based strategies, which is going to make your life as a parent a lot easier, as a therapist a lot easier. It's going to have the kid engage in the skill that you want them to engage in so that it can get reinforced and increase. Otherwise, the individual is going to be engaging in the skill you don't want them to engage in. And then best case scenario, all we can do is get that down to zero.

Worst case scenario, we're going to inadvertently reinforce that, and that's going to increase. There's kind of my soapbox there on antecedent strategies. Let me pass it back to you, and we can get kind of into the nitty-gritty of it.

So you mentioned something very important. We're not just a reductive effort. We come in and certainly reduce or work to decrease the emission of certain undesired behaviors. Yes, from a deficit model, it's usually why we're called in. But by and large, in working to reduce those deficits or undesired behaviors, we're gonna have to teach something. Something will have to be acquired in that sense.

So with the idea of setting up behavioral expectations, Dan, what do you think is the most important thing as an overarching antecedent-based strategy or procedure that parents and or professionals should be considering?

For some reason, parents thought that as of March 16th, the child would have an understanding that this computer, which has been a play toy for the last, eight years of this kid's life for however long they've been alive, the child will magically somehow know that this is now an educational point. So not assuming that just because you know something, someone else also knows that. That would be the number one.

And explain it ad nauseum so the individual, doesn't mean the individual is going to follow you, but at least will know that it's a won't do, not a can't do.

We have to increase something else and in increasing something else there may not be something to increase but something to first teach and then increase the emission and subsequently therein see a reduction in the undesired behaviors and it's not one functionally equivalent equivalent replacement behavior but it's functionally equivalent replacement behaviors verbs as we like to say, for short.

So this kind of leads us to our overarching premise, and I'll let you add your two to five cents to this. So we have to pick these replacement behaviors. We have to define the function, define equivalent, functionally equivalent and desirable or socially significant acceptable behaviors. And then beyond that, What do we have to do? So this is all antecedent based planning now, right?

Yes, we're talking about consequence basis here, but we're diversifying ahead of time and we're doing all this pre-planning to set up, to define functions, to define equivalent socially significant replacement behaviors. And then lastly, what else would you do there?

It's like, know what you're willing to accept in the beginning. That's that functionally equivalent replacement behavior. And if it's self-regulation, for example, maybe that individual is not ready to take five deep breaths or say, hey, I need a break. Maybe it's hitting a pillow. Maybe it's instead of just knocking over the pieces, maybe it's running away. I don't know. Any sort of behavior that's in the direction of the terminal behavior that you want to see.

And you got to know what that is in the beginning, because so often I'll see an RBT or a parent negate the exact behavior that they're going to later accept, not knowing, obviously, at the time that they're going to later accept it. but know kind of the spectrum of things you're willing to accept ahead of time. And in order for it to be an appropriate replacement behavior, it has to hit three criteria.

It has to serve the same function, take the same or less effort, and acquire the same or greater reinforcement. So before I go further into that, let me pass it back over to you, Mike. It seemed like you wanted to hop in there, sir.

So initially, we're setting up to demonstrate that replacement behaviors, specifically functionally equivalent ones, will receive greater reinforcement than so-called undesired behavior. What would you

What percent of the time, and this was a a pretty large adolescent individual, what percent of the time that this individual pulled hair do you think this individual got attention, Mike? Every time? 100%? 100% of the time, right? What percent of the time do you think that when this individual talked, because this individual could talk, they got attention?

So we have to make sure that that desired behavior is reinforced more so than that undesired behavior.

They're just giving that individual attention. And it's the exact opposite. So instead of setting up a contingency to then get reinforced, there's always a contingency going because you're always getting reinforced until you engage in the maladaptive behavior. Then I remove my reinforcement. So you're always getting reinforced. So that's why these parents that are saying when the kids get older, well, my kid always has to earn something in order to do anything.

It's like, well, when you're younger, why don't you flip that script? And they just get things until they're not doing what you want them to do, and then you remove yourself or whatever it is, and they're like, well, why aren't I getting this anymore? Then we've got kind of a discussion versus they start tantruming, and now we start throwing all these contingencies on them after the fact as a consequence.

And I think that as an antecedent, that's a really good thing to think about here as we think about how we're going to teach these replacement behaviors You have to be there the entire time. So like with backward chaining, you're going to walk through every single step of the sequence, and then at some point you're going to let loose of that last one. And then you're going to go back stepwise, backward. And we like that phrase.

I know that we've talked about it before, but expect to be there the entire time. And in that, you're providing that very non-contingent attention, if you will, that we're talking about. And you're able to then vacillate and differentially reinforce certain behaviors. So let's talk about other ways of pre-planning, something that I saw during a session today.

They need to earn our acceptance. And compliance is the key. And I think that does happen sometimes in ABAs. These contingencies become so powerful that the child's only going to get our acceptance as the consequence-based strategy for doing something that we want. And that's where the non-contingent reinforcement comes in, is that, no, you're going to get these social, you don't have to earn my social interaction. You're going to get my social interaction. So it's not always contingent.

Um, it's like Mike, if I were to say like, okay, the only time we're going to ever hang out is if you give me $5 and then we'll hang out. Eventually you're like, nah, I'm not, I don't, you only want to hang out with me. Um,

It's stupid if you have something that you want in your head already to say, like, all right, you go ahead and ad lib it. I know I'm going to correct you now. Like, why would you do that? So doing it on the front end, that antecedent portion, giving them the script you want them to do ahead of time is going to get the desired result and save a whole lot of time.

But what we're saying with our learners here is we have to differentially reinforce something. And we have to plan for that. So if I've given you a script and you didn't follow the line by line or your timing was off, the idea is that I'm there the whole time, I'm attentive the whole time, and I'm also needing to find something in your line delivery that did work as opposed to just going, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. And I can say that and laugh along with you.

And I can also kind of recognize myself as a parent and kind of, you know, I happened to see this today and had a little bit of a thought of how to plan on telling your child as you do homework with them or they ask you to help them with a math problem, for example, How it is you plan on telling them, no, you're wrong. You got the wrong answer. So you did everything right except for that last operation and no. So now ultimately the answer is not wrong. You showed your work.

You lined up your equal signs. You did it nicely. All your procedures are great. But that answer is wrong. There's a lot to be reinforced there. But if we're not careful and planful, myself included... I'll end up going, no, that's wrong. And now all the right stuff that was in there, just because that answer is not precise, receives little to no reinforcement.

So I think that's a really important thing we've happened upon here in discussing this, how to be planful in your antecedent-based strategies as you define functions and your functionally equivalent replacement behaviors and how you're differentially reinforcing any aspect of those towards shaping desired behavior and reinforcing it equal or greater than what the undesired behavior is receiving.

That's a tall order, but that's why we're talking about antecedent-based strategies and planfulness as part of that. So again, to kind of cover up our, to wrap up our first point here, is setting up to demonstrate that replacement behaviors, functionally equivalent ones, will receive greater reinforcement and undesired behaviors, and then we added a whole bunch of stuff there.

Segwaying quickly and with a little bit of bump in the road here to our second point in what else to plan for as an antecedent-based strategy, And we're talking about expecting to be there the whole time as a parent or as a professional who is serving as the teacher or the instructor for the learner, the client in this case.

And in thinking about making our shift toward more antecedent-based strategies, not just the consequence-based in this linear three-part contingency, probably one of the more important points we'll make today is in Considering everything in part one, one of the most important pieces to consider is that the main antecedent is going to be a change in their behavior.

And as professionals, we come in with all the answers and the deficit model and all the assessments that tell us where the gaps are and we have all the baseline data and all the excessive behaviors defined. And sometimes we come in with preset templates for goals. Sometimes we come in with preconceived notions.

But the main antecedent here in terms of our planfulness is we're going to have to make a change in something we do, especially if we don't see our data showing the appropriate reduction and replacement increase in other behaviors as we work toward our objective. So give us your insight there, Mr. Dinh.

before the environment is enabling the situation to occur that has occurred the last 15 times when they haven't done their homework or they're being difficult. So it's really, really easy. Teachers do this all the time. I think we're a little better in ABA, but we're still very victim of this to say, oh, I'm going to continue doing the same strategy in the same way, and the kid just needs to learn to adapt their behavior. Very consequence-based.

Every time we do this, now I'm going to punish the kid, and that will decrease the behavior at will. But if behavior is a product of the environment and we have control over the beginning and the end of the environment, let's look at changing the beginning to get that desired behavior. It just comes down to that environmental manipulation and how in the environment, based on determinism, we're going to get that behavior to occur that we want to have.

And whether that's doing it at a different place, as simple as changing the word homework, Some of our therapists, I can think of one specific example. The parent would say, okay, it's time to work with so-and-so, and the kid would always have a tantrum. And the parent literally changed it with, so-and-so's coming, do you want to play with so-and-so? Just literally as simple as changing that one word had a different result from the client.

So the simple environmental modifications that we can do ahead of time, I think are going to lead to, I don't think, I know will lead to significant changes Yes, yes, we can say it's time to work with so-and-so, and then the kid has a tantrum, and now we're ignoring them, and we're punishing them, and they've lost their video games, and now what opinion do you think they have of the therapist? Well, whenever the therapist comes, I lose my video game.

Whereas if we can get ahead of it and say, let's play with so-and-so, and then they have a good time with the therapist, now they enjoy the therapist, and now we've got a lot of behavioral momentum there.

So figuring out what we can do to change the environment, What we can do to change the parents' environment, too, as you said, the parents are the ones that are maintaining the kids' behavior, so how are we going to put things in an environment that are going to be contingencies for them are going to lead to just way more productive sessions and an increased likelihood of the desired behavior to occur.

But similar to your example, back in the old days when we were doing home visits, I remember clearly how often have we rung the doorbell and then you hear some instruction about putting something away and then you hear this tantrum and then all of a sudden the discussion is, well, yeah, every time you guys arrive, there's a tantrum.

So How would we change that, or how have we changed that? Why don't we entertain that together really quickly? Because it leads to some answers that sometimes parents don't like. But the simple answer is, when we're ringing the doorbell, don't tell them to put the iPad away. Let us take care of that when we come in.

But for some reason, I've run into it on several occasions, the parent wants to be diligent, and they are, and I appreciate it, but The notion that we're creating the very problem we're trying to change and then making an attribution that's rather erroneous sometimes escapes us. And we don't think about the very fact that we have to just change what we're doing right before that behavior happens. And not that we're evading it, but sometimes we are preempting it.

Or sometimes we are evading it or postponing it a little bit just to be able to change the script, to change the scenario so that we're not repeating the same old emission of behavior. We are part of the habit in anything, whether we're professionals or parents. In any situation that's become habitual, that's undesired, we have to recognize that we are part of that habit.

So unless we make a change, we can't expect the learner certainly not a highly impacted learner, for example, developmentally speaking, to be the one that makes the first change. Yet, again, even from a consequence base, we often approach it that way.

You do first than I do, as opposed to let me engage you with a preferred item, and then build some momentum and condition some reinforcement with my presence, and then shift gears or shift sets into some other activity that now encompasses my my objective here and your goals as well.

unless you make a conscious effort to change something before. Otherwise, you're going to just mindlessly go through the same repetition. So, yeah, how do we change those antecedents? Like we've talked about making the environmental modifications, changing what it's called, looking at what we're doing holistically, and that's the best benefit, I think, of any... The best benefit of an ABA service is just coming in and looking at the habits that people have.

Because you don't know the habits that you have because you're in it. So we come in and we say, hey, do you realize that every time you say it's time to do homework, it's at five o'clock in this table and he hasn't had a snack yet? So having somebody be able to come in and objectively quantify your habits or your routines, that's where we come in. And that's the antecedent.

How do we accept we've come in and we focus on instead of saying, do you realize every time that you say it's time to do homework, It's at 5 o'clock at this table. We tend to come in more often and say, do you realize that every time you say it's time to do homework at 5 o'clock at this table, your kid screams, and then this is what you do when your kid screams.

Instead of focusing on that, which we've done, it's more important to focus on what's happening before your kid screams so we can get them not to scream. And that's what you're talking about, and that's what I guess the overall message that we want to get across in this conversation. This podcast is let's figure out how to get the behavior we want to have happen and not the behavior we don't want to have to happen, rather than figuring out how to remedy the behavior after the fact.

But oftentimes we're coming in and yes, often with good reason, but we're adding a layer to that that then won't generalize or affects generality in many ways and then we have trouble fading. So what you're talking about is, we certainly don't talk about enough in the field, And that's that we've fabricated a need for consequence-based strategies and almost sole reinforcement use in that sense. Again, using your homework example as the sole example here.

Work completion and actually negative reinforcement and being able to now put that away and go play as the positive reinforcement, that should be the... you know, the real initial reinforcer, maybe the play is now the placeholder, right?

You know that your video game system's waiting for you, but the initial part is, I finished my math sheet, and my dad sat with me and checked them all, and they were all right, and I had his attention, and then now I'm actually getting to play the video games along with my dad for a little while, so... we often add a different layer to it that's a little bit more contrived, a lot more extrinsic, and we know we're guilty of that.

That's something that we all talk about in terms of how it's affected our generality over now many years of in-home practice, for example, with individuals with ASD. So yeah, you just made me think of that. So just to kind of try to put a bow on our second point here, we talk any sitting-based strategies We're still largely trying to move away from our consequence base.

And looking at the overall picture here, maybe the main antecedent discussion, antecedent-based discussion is how are we changing what we're doing as parents, what we're doing as professionals, BCBAs, RBTs, in those situations where we feel stuck or where behavior change seems difficult.

Now, Within that, this idea that maybe the child or the client doesn't do first, that we do along with, as we expect to be there the entire time, and also shifting the paradigm on this, again, this very strong notion of first then, all the time. You always have to do first for me, and then you receive reinforcement, whereas an antecedent, maybe I'm building rapport, engagement, with those things I know are, or I assume are reinforcing or are preferences as however they've been defined.

And then again, somehow I can shift gears or shift sets with you and get you to do what the objectives of our treatment are. So I'll hand that back over to you there, sir.

Then you're going to get a no try again. And you're not going to get it. What does the teacher do? The teacher does it first and then you do it. So that's how we can do it as well. Maybe the kid doesn't know how to play with something appropriately or how to do something. Let's model that. Let's show them. We don't like it when people do first thens on us all the time. And yes, they're kids.

And as a result of not paying rent, they have to do what the parents say they have to do for sure until they're 18.

But nonetheless, maybe we can take it a coming on ourself for us to do things first and then they respond and then we do things and they respond and now there's some sort of reciprocal relationship instead of us coming into the home and say, okay, like the iPad, yoink, that's now my iPad and first you need to do stuff to earn your own iPad that you were just playing with before you got there back. That seems a great way to create some condition to versus.

So you don't really lose any ground, but for some reason, from an authoritarian perspective as parents, as professionals, again, we're stuck on this first then, you do first for me. I certainly have a couple clients, and it was scary the first couple times where the client pitched the idea of, you know, can I play a little bit first before the homework? And it's like, you know, you're going to look like a sucker if this doesn't work out.

But when it does work out, there's a tremendous amount of trust. I know we can't quantify that. And again, it doesn't mean that your kid's going to do that every time. They're going to try to squeeze more video game time or preferred activity time, especially with you, all the time over homework for the most part. But you can start teaching differential or differentiating.

If you want to sucker me on this contingency and you don't make good on your end, then you're only going to get those 10 minutes. Where if you finish your homework now, you got those 10 minutes beforehand, And if I'm a good professional or parent that walked you through this, I'm going to play with you for those whatever minutes after. So you're getting the video game, you're getting my attention, you got my praise on finishing your homework and the precision of it.

All those things that sometimes we all put in one basket, which is, oh, are you done? Okay, good job. Now you get 30 minutes of video game time. Wow, that's really boiled down in terms of reinforcement. So again... We're talking consequences right now, but we're really talking about planfulness, task analyses, differentiating your consequences, planning for a long list of functionally equivalent replacement behaviors that you might reinforce.

How are you going to change your behavior in a positive way consistently that leads to the desired outcomes, but also be ready to differentiate your behavior. So you're modeling those differentiations and those things that could also work so that we're not being robotic and old school. So it's a big task. We're up to the challenge. I think that we've got the right set of tools. So yes, from an antecedent-based perspective, we should begin using them more.

Mr. Dent, we are nearing the end of our... allotted time or the limit we try to put on ourselves. So we've got two solid points. Very, very content thus far in the way this conversation has developed. Let's segue quickly and efficiently into our third point and we've already been talking about it throughout the entire episode. Would you like to talk about an avoiding insanity? What I allude to is rewriting the script, something that's become very common in our discussions.

And right from point number two, how are you going to change your role, your line in this habitual scene so that the learner, the client, your child also has a chance to change their behavior in an effort to receive different consequences?

So if it's not a product of something internal and it's a product of something external, Something I did ahead of time or last time a similar behavior happened afterwards is going to manifest a similar behavior this time. So how do I cognitively figure out what's going on and change my behavior? So some common ways we do it are just changing the way things are called. Changing the reinforcement or letting them know what it is ahead of time, making myself reinforcers.

Like you mentioned, looking at behavior as multivariate. So, yes, I want you to do this math problem and do it correctly, but there's also you physically writing on the paper. There's you sitting down. There's you not arguing with me. There's all sorts of other behaviors that are going on concurrently with that that I might be able to reinforce, even if the terminal behavior isn't acceptable enough to be reinforced.

But as soon as you say F you, mom or dad, you rip up the paper, break the pencil, throw the book, have a tantrum, now you're completely out of control. Now you're permissive. So somewhere, yeah, somewhere in there, are you sitting? Can I help you write the answers as you process them? Again, huge accommodation and very, very possible accommodation within an IEP.

Certainly a technique that we would use in trying to shape toward the desired behavior of they sit in front of their worksheet and take the pencil and do the calculation and write down the correct answer.

So having to... to not meticulously outline or task analyze all those things, but be aware of all the pieces that are required in terms of the sustained attention, any of that, and shape accordingly, and continue to chain or to add pieces to to expand, to make progress with, knowing that you're going to start somewhere and move ahead gradually. Learning is very, very gradual.

But again, changing that script with the idea that you're not doing your homework, and now suddenly because I've put away your video game system and said that you're not going to get it until you finish your homework, that it's going to be a magical moment, and now the kid is doing the homework, and it's beautiful, and it's precise. So in that... What I'm saying is maybe your kid's doing the homework, but they're complaining the whole time. Do they get their video game system or not, Dan?

But it's not to say you don't have to get any grievances. We're going to prepare for those grievances and for those behaviors. We've created the situation. So if we don't want those admitted, then we better spend some time on the front end creating the motivating operation, the rapport, the engagement, and then shifting gears. But again, our script currently in ABA would be first then, and it's often you do for me, then I do for you.

We're not saying that's incorrect as much as it's time to expand on that.

And from a planful and a sedent-based perspective, start considering all the differentiations, change our script in that sense so that we're ready to reinforce differentially some aspect of behavior that's acceptable in that setting, whether it's related to the actual objective or not, anything that's workable that is incompatible or otherwise different from You know, with the homework example, breaking the pencil, tearing the book, what have you, all those things that we're familiar with as

parents and professionals. Change the script.

So let me pass it back to you, Mike, for the recap. And we'll put a bow on it and send people into their holidays feeling good about antecedent strategy.

So number one, setting up to demonstrate that replacement behaviors and functionally equivalent ones, behaviors, will receive equal or better, greater reinforcement than the undesired behavior and expecting to be there the whole time for this learning process. Number two, very, very succinctly, The main antecedent is the change in our behavior toward a consistent outcome, meaning we're going to make a change until we see a desired change in the outcome.

learner's behavior, and then we're going to maintain for a little while there until we have to change our behavior to teach something new or to create variation or differentiation in those skills. So again, the main point there being that it's always going to start with us. It has to start with us.

So in those situations when we come in with the best practices and ABA and these procedures that have been put on these wonderful worksheets for us and training, and they're not working, yeah, you're going to have to make a change these are all just exemplars and we have to stay dynamic as a field and then thirdly and again most importantly and not new to this show avoid the insanity rewrite the script and rewrite the script, your role in that script.

Know what a script is, a behavior plan, all those curriculums that we do put forth, and know that variations are fun in that. Your improvisation toward better outcomes, toward differentially reinforcing behaviors that maybe you didn't plan for, maybe you did, but that fit the notion and move away from undesired behaviors.

So really a lot more planfulness and dynamism in terms of our approach to how you implement not just the predefined antecedent-based strategies, but now how you're planning ahead in their use as well as their use in conjunction with are very, very strong and well-used consequence-based strategies. So, Mr. Dan, we've had a really, really rich discussion on this. I really like the organic progression, again, that we've had in terms of arriving at episode 10 here. I believe it'll be episode 10.

I hope I get that right in the total chronology on antecedent-based strategies. Good to see you, sir. Keep staying safe. Always analyze responsibly. Absolutely. Cheers, Mike. Enjoy some holiday eggnog. Cheers man. Take care.